Roots of ZZ Top

Arzell J. "Z. Z." Hill was an American blues singer best known for his recordings in the 1970s and early 1980s, including his 1982 album for Malaco Records, Down Home, which stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the 1980s. According to the Texas State Historical Association, Hill "devised a combination of blues and contemporary soul styling and helped to restore the blues to modern black consciousness."

Aynsley Lister is a British blues-rock guitarist/singer and songwriter.

Kaleo is an Icelandic blues rock band which formed in Mosfellsbær in 2012. It consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Jökull Júlíusson, drummer Davíð Antonsson, bassist Daniel Kristjánsson, lead guitarist Rubin Pollock and harmonicist Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson. They have released four studio albums, Kaleo (2013), A/B (2016), Surface Sounds (2021), and Mixed Emotions (2025), as well as the EP Glasshouse (2013).

David Porter is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Jimmie's Chicken Shack is an American alternative rock band from Annapolis, Maryland. They are best known for their singles "High" and "Do Right". In 1996 they signed to Elton John's Rocket Records and released two major-label albums, Pushing the Salmanilla Envelope and Bring Your Own Stereo. Both LPs enjoyed minor chart, radio, and MTV success and produced their best-known hits, "High" and "Do Right." After years of squabbling with their label and finally being set free from their contract, the band released three more albums independently, re.present, Fail on Cue, and 2econds.

Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was an American musician and singer-songwriter. Called an "outsider genius", he was a founding member and leader of the 13th Floor Elevators, as well as a pioneer of psychedelic rock music during the mid to late 1960s. Additionally, he founded the band Roky Erickson and the Aliens in the late 1970s.

Riley B. King, known professionally as B. B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking that influenced many later electric guitar blues players. AllMusic recognized King as "the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century".

Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Presley's energetic and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a mixture of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.